The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien is too well-known, and too complex, to be summarised in full. Succinctly, it is by far the most recent addition to the canon of Western epic literature and is the epic which set the stage for the entire High Fantasy genre that followed in its wake. Interestingly, the story was originally intended as a shorter sequel to The Hobbit, but as its author famously remarked, "the tale grew in the telling." The Silmarillion, posthumously published, serves as a prequel to this, though its material was first written of all.

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Volumes with Publication Dates

The Fellowship of the Ring, July 24, 1954

The Two Towers, November 11, 1954

The Return of the King, October 20, 1955

All three volumes were revised in 1965, partly because the book had been pirated by an American publisher.

Though it (re-)popularised the trilogy format for fiction, it was written as one book and originally just divided into three for postwar budgeting reasons. It has also been published in seven-volume editions, as each of the three original volumes includes two Books and the third also has several Appendices.

An upcoming TV series from Amazon, which is set an unknown time before Fellowship. It has not been confirmed if it deals with the main events of the books, or draws from the more distant past featured in the Appendices, or even if it's in continuity with the Jackson movies or not.

In addition, the books have been adapted multiple times for radio (with a 1981 BBC version as the most highly regarded) and theatre (most recently as a 2006 musical, retooled for the West End from 2007-2008). The books and adaptations themselves have inspired various video games, tabletop games and card games.

The Harvard Lampoon published a parody titled Bored of the Rings in 1969, which manages to cover the entire journey in under 200 pages.

Please note that this is the page for tropes used in the book. See above for the links to pages for the movies. (And Tolkien's Legendarium for the Middle-earth verse in general.)

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